Okay, so everybody knows the Obi-Wan and Anakin elevator scene from AOTC where Obi-Wan realizes Anakin's super anxious about seeing Padme again but he doesn't have time to try to have a more straight-forward talk about his feelings and that probably wouldn't relive his stress anyway given Anakin's proclivities towards hiding his feelings, so he instead decides to provide a distraction in the form of provoking Anakin into an argument by blatantly claiming something that isn't true so that Anakin will refute it.
I want Obi-Wan to do that more. More specifically, I want to see him doing it with CODY.
Because Cody, for all that he is obviously a pretty steady person, is also a clone who presumably was told at some point that he had stress bred out of him and would not have a concept of "talking about his feelings" in any meaningful way. So when the war starts to get to him and the stress and anxiety start to get a little overwhelming, he doesn't really have a great outlet for it.
But Obi-Wan has been dealing with someone who isn't great at talking about his feelings and doesn't have a great outlet for dealing with his stress for like ten years now. He knows how to approach this in a way that's gentler than just straight-up asking Cody how he feels (a question guaranteed to get him nowhere, especially towards the beginning of the war).
So the first time Cody maybe shows up to a briefing a little stressed and they have like two minutes or something before it starts, Obi-Wan says something like "You know this reminds me of that campaign we ran on Mimban where I was able to successfully pull off that crazy maneuver" and Cody is immediately like "This is NOTHING like that campaign and that maneuver you pulled was quite literally the opposite of successful, General" and Obi-Wan goes "Ah yes, you're quite right, I remember now" and then laughs a little and Cody just rolls his eyes a bit but he's noticeably a little less stressed now.
But Cody is not Anakin and he cottons on a bit faster to Obi-Wan's game, so the next time Obi-Wan decides to try it, Cody doesn't rise to the bait and instead just responds with "Yes, General, I do, it was such an impressive maneuver you pulled, I'm sure the men would LOVE to do it again, but sadly we do not have the time or resources to implement it this time." Obi-Wan is fucking DELIGHTED, and from that point on, the distraction isn't an ARGUMENT, but a GAME. Any time Obi-Wan brings up some sort of old battle with blatantly incorrect information, Cody will pretend that it's the absolute truth but has to come up with a reason as to why it isn't usable in this situation or something. It's still helpful in reducing stress, but in a different way.
One day, Cody is feeling a little stressed about something, and he goes to Obi-Wan and says "General, do you remember that time on Felucia when you single-handedly took down the enemy?" And Obi-Wan realizes immediately that this is Cody ASKING FOR HELP. This is Cody recognizing what he's feeling, choosing to admit to it, and asking for help managing those feelings. And Obi-Wan is SO SO PROUD of him, and of course immediately picks up the game and helps his Commander.
And maybe, much further down the line, Obi-Wan's feeling more stressed than usual. Maybe it's just the toll the war has taken, maybe something specific has happened to cause it that's worse than usual, take your pick, but Obi-Wan's just... struggling a little, and Cody notices. Cody's seen it before, but usually it happens when they're already tucked away somewhere like Obi-Wan's quarters or something and he can just come straight out and ask Obi-Wan if he's okay and Obi-Wan can talk about what's stressing him out. But for whatever reason, that's not actually an option right now. Obi-Wan is visibly stressed in public and struggling to set it aside until he can get somewhere private to deal with it, so Cody steps up to him and quietly says "General, this situation reminds me of that time on Grievous's ship when I was able to execute a very successful jump and pin on the enemy combatant." Obi-Wan actually hasn't been on this side of the game before and he's a little distracted by whatever's stressing him out, so he doesn't pick up on it immediately, and so he's like "Wait, as I recall, you did NOT manage to do that successfully, and I don't see ANY relation between that situation and this one" and then halfway through he realizes what just happened and starts to laugh. Cody is just pleased that it worked.
yousharknotpass
kaledo-art
2087
annaxmalina
